Lakewood Schools Staying Open Amid Coronavirus Spread — For Now

LAKEWOOD, NJ — The Lakewood Public Schools will be open Monday, pending an order from Gov. Phil Murphy closing all schools in the state, amid concerns over the spread of the new coronavirus, Lakewood school officials said Sunday.

"Based on the unique challenges and needs of Lakewood Schools, we are staying open Monday," said Michael Inzelbuch, the attorney for the Lakewood Board of Education.

The decision to stay open is driven in part by the fact that parents in the district cannot afford to stay home from work, he said. Inzelbuch said the Lakewood school board has urged Lakewood Township officials and Murphy to enforce some sort of closure for all schools, public and nonpublic. Murphy, in a news conference Sunday, said schools will be closed across the state on Monday.

"Most of our parent body is unable and will not — unfortunately from what we understand — be paid if they stay home, so they will need to go to work," Inzelbuch said. A complete shutdown is needed "for equity so our parent body can be home with their students and children."

New Jersey Coronavirus Updates: Don't miss local and statewide announcements about novel coronavirus precautions. Sign up for Patch alerts and daily newsletters.

As of Sunday, there were 98 cases of COVID-19 in New Jersey, and two people have died from it, according to the state health department. There are two cases in Ocean County: a Manchester Township man and a pregnant Toms River woman. Both are hospitalized, officials have said.

COVID-19 is caused by a member of the coronavirus family that's a close cousin to the SARS and MERS viruses that have caused outbreaks in the past. Read more: NJ Coronavirus Updates: Here's What You Need To Know

Inzelbuch said Lakewood schools are prepared for a closure. The district purchased 200 additional Chromebooks for students that arrived Friday and 50 more are expected to arrive Monday. In addition, Inzelbuch is paying $20,000 for iPads for the youngest students.

All devices will be loaned to parents and students for remote learning, to be returned to the district when regular classroom learning resumes.

Inzelbuch said district teachers have prepared work packets for all students that will be distributed on Monday.

If schools are open Monday, Inzelbuch said the district has been cleaning and sanitizing and will continue to do so daily, both in the buildings and on the buses.

If schools are ordered by the state to shut down, the district has arranged for brown-bag meals that will be delivered to parents and/or students at their bus stops each morning, because all of the district's more than 6,200 students receive free and reduced breakfast and lunch, he said.

Lakewood businesses also have been asked to allow public school students to connect to their wifi hotspots as many of the public school students do not have ready access to the internet.

In addition, elementary school teachers will be expected to create video lessons in English/Language Arts, math, special subjects and media/library and upload it to an internet-accessible drive to allow students who have internet access the opportunity to enhance their home instruction program.

Middle school and high school teachers will add lessons to Google Classroom and Google Meet.

Teachers also will be required to call students and their parents two to three times a week to check on students' progress and see if they need assistance.

Students who receive physical and occupational therapies and speech therapy will have maintenance programs sent home and speech therapy provided through Google Meet.

Have a news tip? Email karen.wall@patch.com Follow Lakewood Patch on Facebook.